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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29126085">We Were Greater</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TatteredTeddy/pseuds/TatteredTeddy'>TatteredTeddy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alfred is great but I tease him a lot in this, During Code Veronica, F/M, Making Out, Possessive Behavior, Switching Between Times, some adult things are implied to have happened offscreen but they’re not stated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:56:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,500</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29126085</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TatteredTeddy/pseuds/TatteredTeddy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Don’t you want to know what a song means? Or even what it says, if you can’t understand the words? We piece random words together in our head and hope we’ve come up with the intended lyrics. It’s quite like learning how to love.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Albert Wesker/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>We Were Greater</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The heavy wooden door closes and locks behind the couple staying in the hotel room at the very end of the hallway. One is trembling with shock and fear, steadying herself on the other, who’s still holding his hand over the side of his face. Both of them look like they’ve gone through hell. At first, nothing is spoken between them. They’re both so exhausted, so shaken up, that no words can come out of either of them.<br/>
<br/>
The horrified-looking girl is the first one to speak. “Sweetie… now that we’re back, can you tell me what happened to you?” she asks, her voice weak between each heavy breath. “Were you burned? The wound is bleeding a little bit…”<br/>
<br/>
“I’ll heal quickly. It doesn’t bother me terribly.” Albert, the much taller one of the pair, removes his hand from his face and gently pats his girlfriend’s head.<br/>
<br/>
“No, no, I know you heal from injuries well, but you’re still hurt. You need something to clean the wound with. Stay here, I’ll get a washcloth.”<br/>
<br/>
Albert watches as his worried girlfriend runs into the bathroom and quickly scans the room before finding the washcloth she promised. Poor sweet Kali, she didn’t know what she’d be getting into when she fell so in love with him. But she promised to stay by his side through everything, and she never breaks a promise to someone she loves. Even if it meant waiting alone on a strange island all night, sleeping in the back of the airplane Albert’s company traveled there in, she’d follow him anywhere. How lucky he is to find someone so intensely loyal. That unconditional devotion is all he ever dreamed of, who knew finding the perfect subject would come so easy… and in such a perfect little package?<br/>
<br/>
“Sit down, okay? So I can reach you.”<br/>
<br/>
Albert bends down to remove his shoes, which he honestly barely remembered he still had on until just now, and then sits down on the couch. Kali sits down right beside him with the washcloth, one side dry and fluffy and one side wet with warm water. She sits up on her knees and leans in close to examine the wound on his face more closely. She’s used to seeing him come home with strange injuries like this, but she’d be lying if she were to claim she learned to stop worrying.<br/>
<br/>
“Okay, sorry if this stings. I made sure the water’s warm,” she says softly before bringing the wet side of the cloth to his face and gently blotting away the blood. “I was so worried... I waited up all night until the sun came out. Where did you go all of a sudden?”<br/>
<br/>
“Chris and his dear sister had left the island, so I followed them. They got away, but Claire’s little friend didn’t escape so easily.”<br/>
<br/>
Kali sighs and sets the washcloth down on the coffee table in front of her. “Fighting with Chris again? Is that how you got so hurt?”<br/>
<br/>
“Yes, it is. I swear I’ll defeat him someday... and then our time will be all for us.”<br/>
<br/>
“Mhm… I believe in you, sweetie. I know you’ll do it someday.”<br/>
<br/>
“Someday, my darling. And then the world will be ours. While I was off dealing with my own problems… what exactly were you doing?”<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
<i>The day before...</i><br/>
<br/>
Cold hands grip the cold railing. Everything’s so cold: not just Kali, but everything in the grand palace-like mansion she stands in. Even inside, the air is heavy and just as icy as her body.<br/>
“Hello...?” The echoes of her voice bounce off the walls. “Hello? Albert? Is anyone...”<br/>
<br/>
A flash of red in the very corner of her field of vision alerts her to the top of the staircase. It’s another person, seemingly rushing across the mansion. “Hello...?” she calls out to the figure in red. “I’m sorry, have you seen Albert anywhere?”<br/>
<br/>
The figure stops in a dark doorway and turns around. A click echoes off the stone walls, and the scope of a rifle stares the perplexed girl down. “An intruder? Who are you?” The voice is that of a man, albeit one with a very... unusual vocal color. It all sounds very forced, albeit not exactly forced to sound how most people would imagine a trigger-happy rich man to sound.<br/>
<br/>
“No, I... I’m not an intruder. I’m here with Albert.”<br/>
<br/>
“I don’t recall an Albert on <i>my</i> base.”<br/>
<br/>
“I’m sorry. He usually goes by his last name... Wesker. He told me he was scouting the place out for something and I wanted to see the mansion.” Kali forces a nervous smile up at the strange man. He’s dressed like some sort of cartoon prince, and his hair has clearly been stared at in the mirror for hours on end. “It’s a very beautiful place...” she stutters, just trying to get him to put the gun down already. “Is this your home?”<br/>
<br/>
“Yes, it is, and I did not permit Wesker, NOR YOU, to come inside!” His voice gets higher as it gets louder.<br/>
<br/>
“I’m very sorry, really. I didn’t know. My name’s Kali, by the way... Kali Ryman. I’m so sorry to intrude in your home, I wasn’t told that I wouldn’t be welcome.”<br/>
<br/>
The gun returns to the man’s side, and he proceeds to give Kali the most horribly perplexed and offended look she’s ever been given. “Well then, Kali… I hope you’ve learned your lesson about intrusion.”<br/>
<br/>
As the still-unnamed man is about to storm back into the shadowy doorway, Kali reaches her hand out toward him, as if to grab the air and pull him back. “Wait. Can you at least show me where Albert went?”<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
Albert shrugs his jacket off his broad shoulders. Most of the rest of his body appears unharmed, thank goodness. He slips his gloves off and sets them down on top of his jacket, which he’s draped over the arm of the couch. “I’m sorry for leaving so abruptly without telling you. I wasn’t expecting such a situation to occur.”<br/>
<br/>
“It’s alright. I know your work is really important. Viruses are not to be messed with, I know that.” Kali’s head comes to rest on Albert’s shoulder. He runs so warm, it’s like cuddling up to a hot water bottle.<br/>
<br/>
“What did you do while I was gone?” Albert’s voice is kind, but his curiosity about her whereabouts goes a bit deeper and darker. Rockfort Island is not just for anyone to explore. It’s no place for someone so… harmless, so sweet and innocent. What would a girl like Kali, <i>his</i> dear Kali, do in such a dangerous place? If only he could have gotten to see her, tiptoeing around, pulling her sweater tighter around her little body. She must have looked so sweet in such a vulnerable state.<br/>
<br/>
Kali just innocently blinks up toward Albert. Exactly what he would have expected from her, wasn’t it? Innocent and clueless. She has no idea how in love he is with the idea of her being so fragile and vulnerable out in the open. “I just… looked around the mansion a little,” she mumbles. “I saw one other guy there, but he didn’t seem so happy that I was in his house uninvited.”<br/>
<br/>
“Of course… I should have warned them that I would be bringing a guest. Although, I’m not so sure they knew I’d be coming in the first place.” His hand settles on top of her head, gently stroking her hair. She looks a bit frazzled, but in a sweet, gentle way, like a stray animal peering out from behind a corner. “What did you find during your adventures?”<br/>
<br/>
“Not much, actually. I got chased out of the mansion before I could really get a good look around. But… I did find one kind of strange thing. There was this game room with all sorts of casino tables and a piano that was just playing on repeat…”<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
Kali is alone in the foyer of the cold stone mansion. It’s deadly silent now that the sole resident’s footsteps have faded away into the darkness. Of course, he had completely ignored her call for help. Her breath appears in cold white wisps in front of her, crystallizing in the freezing air as she waits for another glimpse of hope, but nothing else comes to her. There’s no sign of anyone in this place anymore. She may as well look around, seeing as though Albert has completely disappeared into the night and the man with the rifle clearly wants nothing to do with her.<br/>
<br/>
She takes a tentative step onto the first stair. Thank goodness, nothing happens. No sirens go off, no guns are pointed at her. Maybe it’ll be safe if she continues up to the second floor. She slowly tiptoes up the stairs, her steps silenced by the carpet. The place feels so… abandoned. Dust sits on the railings and the frames of paintings adorning the walls. Had this man never bothered to clean his house? It is quite a large place for just one person to live in, after all. It was most certainly built for a family and a large assortment of staff. She supposes she can’t quite blame him for not noticing the dust.<br/>
<br/>
The hallway at the top of the stairs is quiet, almost desolate. The only light comes from the moonlight streaming in through every window. The marble floors aren’t very likely to creak, but Kali continues tiptoeing anyway. The first strains of any kind of sound in the mansion reach her ears: from far away, a piano is playing on and on. Its tune is flat and emotionless, as if the pianist is bored of the song altogether. Maybe the man with the rifle plays the piano. It would make sense, someone who looks so regal and who obviously lives a very privileged life knowing how to play an instrument. The song seems to be repeating over and over, the same short melody on a constant loop. She follows the music down the hall, waiting for the distrustful man to jump out and shout at her for sneaking around his home without permission. But no one comes. No one seems to be here at all. Just her and that strange piano.<br/>
<br/>
An open door catches Kali’s eye, and she slips inside the doorway. Maybe a bit of privacy away from the main hall would protect her from the possibility of staring down the tip of a bullet. Safety is key when there’s someone who wants to hunt you down, after all.<br/>
<br/>
She finds herself inside a huge casino-like room, with several card tables set up for various games, a bar fully stocked with dust-covered liquor bottles, and a row of slot machines. In the corner sits a grand piano, the song she’d followed echoing out of it… but no one sits at the bench. No one else is in the room at all, except for her.<br/>
<br/>
She slowly approaches the piano, preparing herself to face some kind of hidden monster like the ones Albert had warned her about. Nothing comes out to attack her just yet, only the same melody, playing over and over and over again.<br/>
<br/>
As she gets just close enough to see what’s so special about the unmanned piano, the most obvious answer presents itself right above the keys. It’s not haunted or possessed by a monster at all. It’s just…<br/>
<br/>
“An old player piano. Of course.”<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
“A player piano? What was it playing?”<br/>
<br/>
“Nothing I recognized. But I remember the melody… it was something like this.” Kali pauses to cue up the song in her mind and then hums the haunting tune she remembered playing from the old piano. The walls of their little hotel room won’t let her voice echo, what with all the blankets and pillows and the heavy curtains covering the windows, but it feels as if something’s echoing anyway… maybe from inside her, like she’s just a vessel for the music.<br/>
<br/>
“Alexia’s lullaby. I heard her singing, over the security monitor. It’s the same song.”<br/>
<br/>
“Alexia… that’s who you came to find. Whatever ended up happening to her?”<br/>
<br/>
Albert sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “She had been in a state of cryostasis for the past fifteen years, so that the T-Veronica virus could merge with her body. She wouldn’t give it up to me, though… so I let those damn Redfield siblings kill her once and for all.” A flash of red appears in his eyes for a split second before they return to their natural steel-blue shade. It’s a strange quirk of his, those eyes that glow when he gets all fired up. But Kali had always loved them… and of course, she loved that she was the only one who ever got to see his true eye color behind those sunglasses he wore to disguise his emotions.<br/>
<br/>
“Well, think of it this way… if T-Veronica is gone now, then Alexia won’t be a threat to you anymore. That’s what you thought of her as, wasn’t it?”<br/>
<br/>
“I guess you’re right… you always find an optimistic way to look at things, don’t you?” Albert’s eyes fix back down toward Kali, and his fingertips trace over her soft, round jawline.<br/>
<br/>
“I wouldn’t call myself optimistic. I just think sometimes you need a reminder that everything’s gonna turn out okay.”<br/>
<br/>
“Well, now, I can’t say no to that.” Albert’s index finger tilts Kali’s chin up so she’s looking straight up at him. Usually, eye contact puts her on edge, but it’s a little easier with him. “You’re still thinking about something, aren’t you?”<br/>
<br/>
“Yeah… I am. I found one of your coworkers’ communication devices when I was still on the island. I think I might have heard Alexia through that… at least, I heard <i>someone<i> singing. Now that I think about it, it might have been the same song that was playing on the piano…”<br/>
<br/>
“What did you hear?”<br/>
<br/>
“I only heard her voice… she was singing, and then the sound cut out. I think the song was about a king and a queen… I wonder who it was really about. Or what it really means.”<br/>
<br/>
“You always want to know so much, my dear. Your curiosity will never still.”<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
The piano keeps playing. Over and over and over, the melody repeats as the piano roll turns. It’s almost like the song is taunting her, threatening to never stop playing in the back of her mind. “Stop that,” she says to the piano, as if it’ll actually make the piano stop.<br/>
<br/>
<i>”Stop that… stop that… that…”</i><br/>
<br/>
Oh no. Kali almost forgot one thing, The stone walls and the stone floors, with no soft surfaces in sight, would carry her voice in an exaggerated echo through the halls. She freezes in place and slows her breathing down, trying to silence herself as much as she can.<br/>
<br/>
Footsteps echo from down the hall, like a response to her criticism of the piano. They seem to be running toward the casino room… no, toward her. Toward her voice, which has just completely given away her location. She can feel herself shaking, but at least that isn’t making any noise for now. The footsteps just get louder and clearer, though. The man in red must know his home well enough to pick out where any sound is coming from. Oh, god, is he going to shoot her with that fancy hunting rifle of his if he catches her? Albert will absolutely lose it if that happens. And, of course, she’d be dead and all that, but that’s not even the greatest of her concerns in this situation.<br/>
<br/>
Just as she feared, the man in red appears in the door, glaring at her with a rage she’d previously only seen in a toddler or a dog when the mailman stops by the house. “I— I’m sorry!” she sputters out. “I was just looking for Albert.” She backs up against the piano, her hands coming to rest on it to steady herself. “I can’t find him anywhere.”<br/>
<br/>
“Then why don’t you just leave? I’ve had about enough of you sneaking around my home.” Thankfully, he doesn’t have his gun this time, but he looks just about infuriated enough to take her down with his bare hands.<br/>
<br/>
“I’m so sorry, I really am. I don’t mean any harm. I… I, um, I never caught your name—! What is it… your name, that is?”<br/>
<br/>
“I am Alfred Ashford, commander of this base. And you are <i>still</i> not welcome here!”<br/>
<br/>
Of course it’s one of the Ashford family. Kali should have known that. Albert did tell her that, after all. But that’s all she really knows about their location… so far. “I… I know I shouldn’t be here, I’m really sorry. Do you know where Albert is though…?”<br/>
<br/>
Alfred’s expression turns angrier and angrier every word Kali speaks in her hopeless efforts to defend herself. “No, I do NOT! Now get out, or I’ll be forced to remove you myself!”<br/>
<br/>
“Oh— okay. I’m really sorry, Alfred.”<br/>
<br/>
Kali darts out of the room and back down the hallway. The light from the full moon seems to have dimmed, or maybe it’s just because there was a light on in the casino room, so now everything else just looks darker in comparison. Her pace picks up as she approaches the stairs, reaching a full sprint as she bounds down to the first floor and across the front hall. Before opening the front doors and escaping the mansion once and for all, she comes to a screeching halt and looks back once more in the direction of the casino room. The piano must still be playing its song on repeat to the empty, lonely room… over and over and over again.<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
“The song was about a king and a queen… much like ourselves, isn’t that right?”<br/>
<br/>
Kali thinks about it for a second and then shakes her head. “No, this song is different… the king and queen are the opposite of us. The king was the kind one, and the queen was feared. No one would fear me… that’s all you.”<br/>
<br/>
“I suppose you’re right. At least, those damn Redfields should fear me.” Another momentary red flash lights up Albert’s eyes. Every time he’s reminded of his mortal enemy… and his mortal enemy’s little sister, who he hates slightly less… his eyes start to glow. It happens when he’s full of any sort of emotion, really.<br/>
<br/>
“Heh… cute,” Kali says under her breath at the little red glow.<br/>
<br/>
His eyes suddenly fixate on her, back to their natural steely shade but still full of intensity. “Speak louder, dear.”<br/>
<br/>
“Cute… your eyes. When they do the glowing thing. I think it’s cute.”<br/>
<br/>
“Cute isn’t a word I’ve heard used to describe me before. But you always choose your words so interestingly, don’t you?” His eyebrow raises at her, amused by her very unusual descriptor for someone who has been working to create deadly bioweapons for years, and is also quite frankly built like a damn tank.<br/>
<br/>
“I guess. I just feel strange using other words sometimes, but cute is innocent enough. It gets the point across without making my words sound too… well, dirty.”<br/>
<br/>
“You don’t need to be so clean with me. I’ve seen more than enough of you that worrying about being dirty shouldn’t be a concern at all.”<br/>
<br/>
Kali’s face goes red and she bursts out in giggles. “You’re such a little shit sometimes! I am soooo gonna get you back for that one.” She throws herself toward him, trying to tackle him onto the plush cushions of the couch, but he doesn’t budge. Damn it, she should have known that trying to tackle her superhuman sweetheart wouldn’t get her anywhere. “Come onnnn, humor me,” she whines.<br/>
<br/>
Instead of falling back just to humor her, Albert picks her up and tosses her onto the bed. “I have a counterattack of my own.”<br/>
<br/>
Before she knows it, Kali’s pinned down below him, her face only an inch or so away from his. “Now, that was a surprise attack if I’ve ever seen one.” She kisses the tip of his nose before slipping right underneath him and sitting up on the bed. “Come sit… I’m tired.”<br/>
<br/>
“Yes, yes, I should have seen it in your eyes. You do look quite tired.” Albert sits on the end of the bed next to Kali. He looks tired too, but in a different way. His eyelids aren’t weighed down with fatigue like hers are… he just looks disappointed in himself. “You were up all night, weren’t you?”<br/>
<br/>
“Well, I tried to get some sleep while I was on the island. But I couldn’t find anywhere warm enough, so I couldn’t really sleep. I think that was the coldest I’ve ever been…”<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
Kali stands outside the mansion, in the middle of the grand courtyard. It’s so quiet out here, for such a dangerous place where such a disaster has broken out. She has to ask herself… what is she even doing here? She knows she came here with Albert, but why? Does love turn her this reckless? It never has before… or maybe this love is different. If this is how far she’d go for him, quite literally, maybe that means he’s the one.<br/>
<br/>
But how’s not the time to question such things. The late-December air is even harsher outside than it was in the drafty foyer of the Ashford mansion. She needs to take shelter somewhere before she catches hypothermia.<br/>
<br/>
Outside the courtyard is the steepest set of stairs she’s ever seen. She was able to climb up them without a problem earlier that night, but going back down is much more of a challenge. She leans back as far as she can without falling over to try and balance herself as she takes each step slowly and carefully. Everything about this island seems to be made to keep people out… even Alfred himself.<br/>
<br/>
Once the stairs are conquered, the rest of the island presents itself in all its… sad, barren glory. What kind of person would ever want to live here, right by a prison housing the enemies of a powerful corporation? Of course, the Ashford family may have been the ones running this prison, but who would want to be here for any reason? Only a truly sad and disturbed family would choose to live so far away from civilization with prisoners as their only company.<br/>
<br/>
“Hello…?” she calls out into the open air. Maybe this time someone kinder would hear her. “Albert? Are you out here? Anyone…?”<br/>
<br/>
No response. Of course. She tiptoes forward, not sure where she’s headed but just walking aimlessly in the hopes that something would come to her.<br/>
<br/>
A huge, dark silhouette eventually comes into view, and she lets out a sigh of relief. It’s the plane she and Albert took to get to Rockfort Island, along with some of the HCF employees working under him. She runs toward it as fast as her freezing body can carry her, the feeling slowly returning to her legs as she takes each step. No one would be in there anymore, but she could still get inside.<br/>
<br/>
She runs up the steps to the door, which Albert hadn’t even bothered to raise back up after leaving, and forces the door open with all her might. Of course it was left unlocked, she knew Albert wouldn’t lock her out. She throws one last look over her shoulder before letting the door close behind her.<br/>
<br/>
The plane is dark and silent, so strangely peaceful compared to everything she’s faced over the past couple of days. She’s not concerned about being lost in the darkness; when Albert comes back to the island he can just call her, or maybe he’ll just get right on the plane and find her in there. She tiptoes down the center aisle, glancing around at the empty seats. A few items were left behind in the plane: a winter coat, a communication device of some sort, a book that still sat open on the seat. She can’t help but wonder if the operatives who left their belongings in here would ever come back to gather them, or if their bodies would freeze in the courtyard or become food for the monsters that were said to be lurking in the palace.<br/>
<br/>
A blanket, the depressingly thin and small kind one would find on a long overnight plane trip, sits on one of the seats in the very back. She picks it up and runs her hand over the soft fabric. If she wanted to take a nap until Albert came back, this would certainly do for now. She raises the armrests between the row of seats and lays down across them, wrapping the blanket tightly around her shivering body. The blanket doesn’t help much with the temperature, but at least she’s inside where the wind won’t freeze her over. Maybe if she sleeps until Albert returns from his mission, she won’t have to be awake to feel the mind-numbing anxiety and the painful cold any longer.<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
“I got into the plane after I left the mansion. There was a blanket in there, so I tried to sleep on the seats.” Kali’s hands clasp together in her lap. “But I couldn’t sleep… it was way too cold and I was way too worried about you.”<br/>
<br/>
“What were you worried about? You know those useless Redfield siblings couldn’t take me down if they tried.”<br/>
<br/>
“I know that, but my mind still tells me the worst-case scenario will happen anyway. And your work is really dangerous, you know. You come home hurt all the time… like just now.” Her hand reaches up toward the side of his face that hasn’t been injured and she gently strokes his cheek. For someone so emotionally hardened, his skin is quite soft. “That makes me worry about you… because I love you, and I don’t like seeing you hurt.”<br/>
<br/>
“I’ve never been very concerned about getting hurt. The virus Birkin created has made me practically invincible. Why does it still worry you?”<br/>
<br/>
Kali’s brows furrow as she considers the question. She’s never been asked something like that… she thought the answer was obvious. “Because you’re in pain. Have you never had anyone worry about you before?”<br/>
<br/>
Now Albert’s the one who’s perplexed. Has he had anyone worry about him? Not in the way Kali does, that’s for sure. He’s never had someone clean his wounds for him or ask him if he’s alright with even a hint of love in their voice. He suspects it’s actually a completely normal human behavior… that’s what the Birkins were like with each other and their young daughter. He remembered those moments when Annette would walk an exhausted William out of his office late at night, draping her arm over his shoulders as she gently chided him about getting enough sleep and laughed when his words came out slurred. That’s the loving kind of worry, is it not? The sleepy smiles and leaning into each other… it’s kind of like him and Kali. Maybe he really had never experienced that before she came along.<br/>
<br/>
His answer to Kali’s question is filled with an uncharacteristic confusion. “No, I don’t think I have… not in the same way you do. Spencer used to worry, but in the same way that one would worry about a test subject being tampered with. You worry about me because I’m still somewhat human, and you don’t want me to be in pain.”<br/>
<br/>
“Oh… oh, sweetheart… come here.” Kali crawls into Albert’s lap and wraps her arms tightly around him. “Sweetie, I’m so sorry, I had no idea… I hope you know that you deserve all the caring that I try to do for you, and so much more.”<br/>
<br/>
Albert’s honestly a bit confused by her reaction. Sure, he loves the attention she gives him… but he’s never considered the concept of people <i>wanting<i> to be worried about. He’s never been so concerned with the kind of affection that normal humans give each other. Kali was his first real experience with all of these oh-so-human things, like love and fear and concern for another’s well-being. And how strange… he felt those same things toward her too. He likes when she fawns over him, gently cleaning his wounds and combing her hand through his hair before climbing into bed with him. She’s so human, unlike anything he’d seen before. “I do appreciate your concern for me,” he whispers to her. “It’s a sign of love and humanity. And you carry so much of both of those inside your heart…”<br/>
<br/>
“It’s because I love you. And if you didn’t grow up being worried about the way that any guardian should worry about their kid, then I’ll make sure to remind you every single day that if you’re in pain or if you’re thinking too much about something, you should come to me and I’ll take care of you. Can you promise me that?”<br/>
<br/>
“Yes, I promise.”<br/>
<br/>
She looks up at him with the sweetest and most innocent look in her eyes. “You have that look on your face, you know. Like you want something.”<br/>
<br/>
“I want <i>you</i>, Kali. I always do.”<br/>
<br/>
“And what of me do you want? I’m right here, you know. You have me.”<br/>
<br/>
“I know, and no matter how much of you I have, I want more. Listening to you tell me how much you love me and how you’ll always care for me… I can’t resist you when you do that.”<br/>
<br/>
Kali leans in and presses a soft kiss to his lips. “You always have me. And you always will… always.”<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
Kali’s attempts to sleep prove themselves useless, and not just because of the freezing temperatures. She can’t stop worrying about Albert. Where has he gone? Is he fighting Chris again? What about the Ashfords? Alfred didn’t seem to appreciate her presence or Albert’s. Is he going to be outnumbered? Oh, god, what if he doesn’t come back? She can’t fly a plane! If she’s stuck here forever, she’d probably die pretty quickly… either from the cold or at the rotting hands of a zombie. She knows her fear is completely ridiculous, but she can’t help but worry about what would happen if she were stuck here without Albert… or just left without him in any part of her life, trapped on an island or not.<br/>
<br/>
Eventually, though, the quiet comfort of sleepiness covers her like a second blanket, and she begins to fade away into the world of dreams…<br/>
<br/>
… until without warning, her eyes open and she’s quite ungracefully pulled from the doorway to dreamland by the sound of loud, crackling feedback. It’s that communication device she saw on the seat across the aisle from her, suddenly activated by some strange force of the universe.<br/>
<br/>
“W-What was that? Is someone here? Hello???”<br/>
<br/>
No one responds. Her voice may not have even been picked up by the device at all. The only thing she can hear from it is the voice of an unfamiliar woman, speaking— no, <i>singing<i>, to no one in particular. Her song feels familiar… like she’d heard it before, but not enough times to know the words or the melody.<br/>
<br/>
<i>“There was a friendly but naïve king, who wed a very nasty queen…”</i><br/>
<br/>
The haunting, operatic voice sends a chill down her spine. She can’t see the woman behind the voice, but she knows it’s Alexia. Her voice exudes a powerful energy that intimidates Kali, even without being presented with the sight of her. The song doesn’t intimidate her at all, though. It’s beautiful yet sad, that same kind of slow melancholy that kept so many classical masterpieces in the hearts of modern musicians.<br/>
<br/>
<i>“The king was loved, but the queen was feared.”</i><br/>
<br/>
She knows this melody. She’s heard it, echoing off cold gray stone walls, repeating over and over as the piano roll turned. It’s the same melody the piano played in the casino room. She’s never heard the tune before arriving here, though… it must be very special to the Ashford family, maybe even the work of one of their ancestors.<br/>
<br/>
<i>“Till one day when walking in his court, an arrow pierced the kind king’s heart…”</i><br/>
<br/>
How strange… a kind king and an evil queen. She can’t help but wonder who this could have been written about. Was it a legend from the Ashford family themselves? They were a noble family, after all, maybe not kings and queens but close enough. Or maybe it was some historical tale that she just hadn’t heard of in school.<br/>
<br/>
<i>“He lost his life and his lady love.”</i><br/>
<br/>
The device screeches to life with another wave of ear-piercing feedback and then turns off again. How strange… it’s as if the disembodied voice of Alexia was singing just for her. She wonders if she’d ever meet the other Ashford… hopefully she’d be more welcoming than her brother.<br/>
<br/>
As the silence engulfs her again, so does her sleepiness. She closes her eyes once more, clutches the blanket tighter, and waits for the darkness to overcome her.<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
“I promise I’ll never leave you alone like that again.” Albert’s voice is uncharacteristically soft and gentle toward his darling Kali. She’s so good to him… how could he not return the favor? “You must have been so cold and so scared, waiting for me to return…”<br/>
<br/>
“Yeah… I was.” Kali can almost feel a chill swirl around her as her mind drifts back to Rockfort Island and the freezing night air blowing in from the sea. “I kept hoping you’d come back until I got too tired to keep my eyes open.”<br/>
<br/>
“My dear heart, you really are so loyal. Anyone who had you before me didn’t know how lucky they were… but now you’re all mine, and I won’t let you wait alone any longer.”<br/>
<br/>
“You’re too good to me… you really are.” She leans in and plants a soft kiss on his cheek, another one of those innocent gestures of hers that makes his mind spin out of control.<br/>
<br/>
“Don’t tempt me like that. Come closer.” He pulls her in by her waist, so that she’s pressed right up against his torso. “You’re a dangerous girl… the only thing I’ll ever let myself be weak to.” His gaze travels down to her lips, which had been freshly painted over with a coat of lip balm after the cold had made them split, right down the middle of her perfectly soft lower lip where he loves to kiss. As he leans in to kiss her, he’s more gentle than usual, so not to make her bleed again. Even his favorite part of her body is so tender and fragile after the events of the day before. There’s so much he wants, so much he <i>needs</i> from her, but he must be careful for now. He has to take the best care of her that he can until she’s feeling completely like herself again.<br/>
<br/>
“You’re not hurting, are you?” he whispers against her lips, his voice drifting in between them, leaving the sweetest taste in the air.<br/>
<br/>
“I should be the one asking you that. You’re much more hurt than I am, sweetie…”<br/>
<br/>
“Yes, but you’re so much more fragile than I am. Your body can’t handle such stress. Which is exactly why I have to protect you.”<br/>
<br/>
Kali leans in and tilts her head downwards so their foreheads are very gently pressed together. “You do so well at protecting me, you know. I always feel safe with you… I can’t even imagine what there would be to fear… since you just being here makes me feel so safe.”<br/>
<br/>
“I’ll be sure that you never have to fear anything again. Now, tell me once more, my dear, sweet Kali… you were scared without me, weren’t you?”<br/>
<br/>
“I was so scared… I was. I really was.” Her words float around Albert like a cloud of sweet perfume. Something’s just so… enticing about that side of her that just wanted— no, <i>needed<i>, to be protected. “But you’ll protect me. I know you will.”<br/>
<br/>
“I’ll protect you from anything or anyone who ever dares to hurt you.” His voice is at a low rumble now, the very sound waves almost tangible around the couple. “My dear little fragile angel… I must be careful that your wings are not further damaged.”<br/>
<br/>
“I’m only an angel in your eyes. I’m really just a mess.”<br/>
<br/>
“Then it’s my job to fix anything you think is a mess in your life. You’re mine now, and I have to take care of what belongs to me.”<br/>
<br/>
Kali ponders this statement for a minute. She belongs to him? To most people, that might sound like a threat, but she likes the idea of belonging to someone. It’s so much better than how she spent her life before, being unwanted and ignored, never having a place that felt like home. Belonging anywhere at all was all she’d ever hoped for, and now she had a home in the arms of the most lovely person she’d ever met.<br/>
<br/>
“Yes… I guess so,” she says ever-so-softly. “You can fix anything, after all.”<br/>
<br/>
“My dear heart… you <i>do<i> know that you’re mine, don’t you? After all this time we’ve spent together…”<br/>
<br/>
“Of course I do. I know that I’m yours… and I wouldn’t want anything else.”<br/>
<br/>
“You’ve learned so well.” He guides her face in closer to his, his hand gripped tightly around her chin. “Of course… experience is the best teacher. I could keep you with me forever…”<br/>
<br/>
“Forever…? Like… as in, getting married someday?” A hopeful glint reflects in Kali’s eyes. What a dream that would be, to walk down the aisle to him. He may not be the type to cry at his wedding, but she would probably take up that job for him.<br/>
<br/>
“Yes, I think that’s the proper path for the two of us. It’s the only way I can imagine us turning out, and I don’t like when my plans are changed.”<br/>
<br/>
“Well… me neither.”<br/>
<br/>
“Now, I don’t have a ring for you quite yet, but keep your pretty little eyes open… it’ll come soon.”<br/>
<br/>
Before Kali can express her shock at this impromptu change in the conversation’s path, her train of thought is cut off by another kiss. Both she and Albert are completely breathless, but does it matter if she can breathe as long as she’s with him? He is her air, her shelter, everything she needs to live. Her hand clasps onto the fabric of his shirt, pulling herself closer and closer to him. She just can’t get enough, especially after all that worrying she did the night before.<br/>
<br/>
A trail of kisses takes a gentle path down Kali’s neck toward her collarbone. “Promise me…” Albert whispers between kisses, before his lips latch onto her soft skin to mark her with a sign of his possession. “Promise me you’ll never leave.”<br/>
<br/>
“I won’t. I could never leave you… I swear. I love you so much…”<br/>
<br/>
<i>”so…”</i><br/>
<br/>
<i>”...so much.”</i><br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
Still, as Kali waits for her darling to return, the words of Alexia’s song ring in her head, taunting her with their mysteriousness, raising a million questions that she’s absolutely desperate for the answer to. She does not dream of some magical other world tonight: she couldn’t do that now, while her thoughts are so consumed with the strange song and with her dear Albert.<br/>
<br/>
<i>"There was a friendly but naïve king..."</i><br/>
<br/>
She’ll never understand what it is that Albert does, will she? She knows his home used to be Umbrella, and now it’s HCF, and come morning it’ll likely be an entirely different company. But does that matter? Her home is by his side, just as it always has been, and as it always will be. Raccoon City is long gone, and so is her childhood home and most of her immediate family. She doesn’t have a house to return to, a stable force in the same location every moment of every day, but she has him.<br/>
<br/>
<i>"...who wed a very nasty queen."</i><br/>
<br/>
He loves her fear of the unknown, the anxious barrage of questions during every long drive or flight. He loves her deep, dark eyes when they widen or when her brows furrow over them, and her gentle hands when they tightened around his wrist or clasped tightly together to try and stop them from shaking. This is part of the fun for him, isn’t it? How far she’d go for him… and her limits were never pushed. He never reached that boundary where she had to put a stop to it, not just because he wouldn’t dare hurt her like that, but because she really would go anywhere and do anything just to be by his side.<br/>
<br/>
<i>"The king was loved, but..."</i><br/>
<br/>
She loves his determination and his fearlessness, even when it verges on recklessness. Is recklessness even a concern anyway, what with this special virus that makes him virtually invincible? She can’t get enough of the little secrets he lets her in on: how his hair falls in his face in the morning, the bluish-gray of his eyes like storm clouds covering the sky in the early evening when they're not glowing red with fury or hidden behind his trademark sunglasses, and the gentleness with which he handles her, his precious, fragile, vulnerable human who can’t even fathom the kind of chaos he could unleash if he tried. And she tries, every day of her life. Every day, she wants to know more. She wants to know him, each little detail, not just of his work and his plans for the future but him as a person, as Albert Wesker the man, not Albert Wesker the employee of whatever company he’s allowing to use him this time.<br/>
<br/>
<i>"...the queen was feared."</i><br/>
<br/>
But what are they together? <i>Who</i> are they together? Such a strange combination… exact opposites, from their styles of dress and how they carry themselves to their deepest ingrained values and the ways they see the world. Together, though… something special blooms, like fireweed on scorched earth, an epic love between two deeply broken people with the intensity of something that’d be immortalized in books for generations to come. Together, they are greater.<br/>
<br/>
♔ ♕ ♜ ♝<br/>
<br/>
Two flushed faces, two hearts pounding in sync with each other, two bodies curled up together under the blankets. They fit together like puzzle pieces, Kali nestled right against Albert’s chest, his arms wrapping tightly around her. He can’t resist kissing her soft, blushing cheek as she settles in against him. Something about her makes him want to be gentle, to be kind… but just with her. She is the exception to every rule he’s ever given himself. What a sight it’d be someday, the great and powerful Albert Wesker standing at the altar as his dear Kali walks down the aisle to him… he may not like changing plans very much, but he changed all the plans in his life the very first moment he saw her. Everything from there, and everything from here, will all lead up to the day that he puts a wedding ring on her finger.<br/>
<br/>
“Are you tired, dear heart?” he whispers, his voice muffled by her hair falling over her shoulder. He brushes it back for her, so she doesn’t have to move from her position and of course, so he doesn’t breathe in the pale blonde strands in his sleep.<br/>
<br/>
“Yeah… I didn’t sleep much at all last night. You need sleep too, don’t you?”<br/>
<br/>
“I’m not usually bothered by a lack of sleep, but I’m sure my body would appreciate it if I got some rest.”<br/>
<br/>
“Then you get that rest, sweetie. I’m gonna go to sleep too.” Kali smiles sweetly at Albert before her eyes close and all the tension in her body just melts away. “Goodnight…”<br/>
<br/>
“Goodnight, my dear.”<br/>
<br/>
As Albert slowly drifts toward sleep, the soft rise and fall of Kali’s body feels like the sweetest lullaby. All his worries about the destruction of T-Veronica and the secret Umbrella facility fade out of his mind completely. His sweet, precious Kali could take all of his worries from him and melt them in her hands. Umbrella couldn’t create something like her, even with the greatest technology the world had to offer. Sure, maybe he never thought he’d end up here, half-asleep in a heavily blanketed bed with such a precious little angel of a girl falling asleep in his arms, but he wouldn’t give it up for anything. He may have known before, somewhere deep in his heart, but as she sighs in her sleep and her body curls closer to him, that’s when he truly understands… he may be great, but together, he and his darling create something so much greater.</i></i></i></i></i></i></i></i></i></i></p>
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